What does the Bible say about responsibility?

Ezekiel 18 contains the important principle that the soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him" (Ezek. 18:20). The individual would be dealt with by God according to his own conduct. It is not a question of what their fathers had been. Their own iniquities demanded and would entail God's judgment. Long before, God had threatened to visit "the iniquities of the fathers upon the children" (see Ex. 34:7). This principle is departed from. Individually they were guilty, and as such would be judged; nevertheless, where repentance was manifest, God would pardon, for He had no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23). It must be borne in mind that what is spoken of here is temporal judgment, physical death, because of sin now. It gives us no teaching as to the eternal judgment of sin, which is taught elsewhere.

In that solemn hour, "every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (verse 12), In these words we get a dogmatic statement of our second principle. Each shall give account of himself, and not of another. Our responsibility is direct and personal, solitary and alone. Upon this is based the exhortation, "Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way" (verse 13) .

With this humility and brokenness, the apostle connects heart-searching and examination of one's ways. "But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden" (Gal. 6:4-5). Gal. 6:5 in no way contradicts Gal. 6:2. In the earlier verse it is a question of sympathy with one another's infirmities. We are to be helpers of each other, bearing one another's burdens (bare). Here it is responsibility where each must stand alone; "every man shall bear his own burden" (phortion). Responsibility cannot be shifted to other shoulders; each individual saint will have to render his own account to God. Solemn consideration! We are apt to lose sight of the judgment-seat of Christ where all that we have done in the body will be gone into by the Lord. But to overlook it is dangerous. Grace does not do away with responsibility, but rather deepens it.

The point before the mind of the Spirit here is that every one should look to his own ways, that in the coming day he may have rejoicing as to himself. The word is needful and wholesome beyond all doubt. The heart is so treacherous that there is always a tendency to be occupied with the ways and failings of others rather than with our own. It is perfectly possible to complain loudly of a mote in the eye of another and be quite unconscious that a beam resides in one's own. A great advantage is thus given to the enemy, which he is never slow to avail himself of, to the sorrow and shame of the saints and above all to the Lord's dishonour. Let us esteem such ways, beloved brethren. While not overlooking evil in others, let us correct our own ways, remembering that each has to answer to the Lord for himself. Beware of mounting the judgment-seat; it is the prerogative of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Gentile will not be judged on the same ground as the Jew, nor the Jew on the same ground as the nominal Christian. Each will be dealt with on his own distinct ground and according to his light and privilege. There will be the few stripes and the many stripes as in Luke 12. It will be “more tolerable” for some than for others, as in Matthew 11. The Judge of all the earth will do right, but man is responsible and his responsibility is measured by the light and advantage afforded him. All are not huddled together carelessly, as though they were all on one common ground. On the contrary there is the most accurate discrimination, and no one will ever be condemned for slighting and refusing advantages which were not within his reach. But the very fact that there will be a judgment at all, proves, even were there no other proof, that man is responsible.

Blind unbelief again is ready with needling questions. lf God is sovereign and has an absolute plan and purpose for the universe, then men will argue that it makes no difference what people do. Whatever they do, they argue, this was going to be the case anyway, so they could not avoid doing lt. This is the fatalistic way of saying that man is not responsible for his own actions. This seems to them to be a logical argument. They are saying that God's sovereignty and man's responsibility cannot be true facts at the same time, because they do not understand how it can be so.

Is man responsible? Yes, just as certainly as God is sovereign. Whatever we think of it, God has declared that "every one of us shall give an account to God" (Ro. 14:12). In fact, the Lord Jesus Himself is quoted in Matthew 12:36, "I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account of it in the day of judgment." At that time no one will dare to say he was obliged to do the evil works he has done, nor to speak the evil words that came from his lips. He will have to confess himself guilty of wilfully shirking his responsibility. Even now his own conscience tells him this. lf one really believes that God is sovereign, is he not thus admitting that his own place therefore is that of a subject who is to submit to God? Faith in a sovereign God stirs the heart with a sense of responsibility to be obedient to Him.

The power of sin within us is far too strong for us to conquer, even after we are saved by the grace of God. Unbelievers give way continually to this cruel enemy of souls. They are slaves of sin, and generally prefer it that way. They are not responsible for having a sinful nature, for this has been inherited from Adam. But they are responsible for allowing that nature to express itself by sinning. Everyone is personally responsible for their own sins, and God allows no excuse for this. Yet it is the most common deceit of people's hearts to blame anything or anyone else for the wrong they do themselves. This is one of the repulsive characteristics of that sinful nature. Such a dishonest cover up is the very reason that human beings find no deliverance from sin.

First, we must face our sins as our own personal guilt, if we are to be forgiven. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). This guilt must be removed before we can begin to understand how God deals with our sinful nature. The sinful nature is not our responsibility, but our guilt is. It is guilt on account of the sinful acts we have committed and which only the blood of Christ, shed on Calvary, is sufficient to remove before God. Personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the great sacrifice for our sins, is absolutely essential for this forgiveness and justification. For God offers this "unto all," but it is applicable only to "all them that believe" on His Son (Rom. 3:22).

Let us by the grace of God maintain firmly both these great facts — God is sovereign in His gracious actings: man, though fallen, is a responsible creature and addressed as such. The truth of Divine sovereignty is plainly stated in Scripture. Read such passages as John 6:37-44; Romans 9:10-24; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2. Equally plain is man's responsibility. Read such passages as John 3:16-18; Romans 2:6-16; 1 Peter 4:5-6, Let us then accept both, even if as yet we do not see far enough to discern exactly how they fit in with each other.

The question is not raised in this passage, we apprehend, as to where the punishment of the unfaithful servant will be inflicted, but it solely concerns the principle of responsibility. And most solemn is the instruction given in this connection. First, the case is supposed of the servant, who knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will: such an one shall be beaten with many stripes. The greater the light therefore, the greater is the responsibility; for where the light is possessed, there is positively no excuse for disobedience. Indeed, not to do according to the will made known is refusing to obey; in other words, it is rebellion. Judgment will thus take this into account, and hence there will be "many stripes." The second case given is one "that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes." It might have been thought that ignorance of his lord's will would have shielded the servant, though he deserved the punishment. But not so; for while he really did not know his master's mind, his will had been made known, as now, for example, in the Scriptures, and it was the servant's responsibility to have made himself acquainted with it. On this account, although the ignorance is accepted in mitigation of the sentence, the "few stripes" will be administered. Thereon the Lord affirms the principle already stated: "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." The principle, therefore, is both divine and human, man also acting upon it in the ordinary transactions of life.

"For each one shall bear his own load" (v.5). In the final analysis, though we may at present "bear one another's burdens," each one of us is solitarily responsible only for our own work. We cannot transfer responsibility from ourselves to someone else. Nor should we have such an attitude as did Peter at one time, saying, "But Lord, what about this man?" (Jn.21:21). Therefore, while it is important that we have genuine compassion and care for others, we must not expect others to take responsibility for us, nor concern ourselves with what is their responsibility.

We ought not to forget our responsibility towards others, for there can be no valid excuse for a Christian who exhibits a selfish indifference to the highest welfare of others. Setting aside for the time the claims arising out of the bond of our common manhood, the Scripture is clear that "none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. For whether we live, we live to the Lord; or whether die, we die to the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." — Rom. 14:7-8. This passage, therefore, clearly implies that just as surely as we have an unchangeable relation to the Lord Himself, so surely we have an unchanging relation to those about us.